The Step-by-Step Guide to Migrating to an Exadata Database Machine

We have migrated a number of our databases from non-Exadata servers to the Exadata Database Machine using the “RMAN 11g Duplicate standby from Active database” method.

After creating a Dataguard Database, during a narrow maintenance window, we performed a failover of the database to the one Exadata Database Machines in the cluster.

Below are the step-by-step commands used to perform these migrations.

Assumptions
Here we assume that the following tasks has been completed and the servers are ready for the migration.

• Oracle Grid Infrastructure 11.2.0+ installed on the Exadata Machine.
• Oracle RDBMS 11.2.0.1 or later is installed on Exadata Machine.
• An ASM Instance is configure and running on all the nodes
• +DATA and +RECO diskgroups are created with sufficient space.

High Level Steps
• Configure Primary Database to work with Oracle Data Guard.
• Configure tns for primary and physical standby database.
• Create Physical Standby database on the Exadata Machine from source DB.
• Synchronize Physical database with Primary database on Exadata Machine.
• Activate the Standby database to make it as Primary.
• Upgrade the New Primary database on Exadata Database machine.
• Register the New Primary database into CRS and configure the database as RAC, to run all nodes.

Using Physical Standby for Migration

Advantages
• Minimum Downtime
• Easy to configure and manage
• Database can be migrated with same name

Disadvantages
• Source and Target must run same OS version
• Source and Target must run same RDBMS version
• Copy archive logs manually if source and target have different RDBMS version.

These parameters are dynamic and will take effect immediately. Check the parameter to make sure it points to the correct locations as specified.

SQL> SHOW PARAMETER LOG_ARCHIVE_DEST_2

SQL> SHOW PARAMETER REMOTE_LOGIN_PASSWORDFILE  this must be set to “EXCLUSIVE” (default)

Note: Above parameter makes sense when you are working in an identical environment including OS and RDBMS version.

4. Configure the primary database to receive redo data, by adding the standby redo log files to the primary database. It is highly recommended that you have one more standby redo log group than you have online redo log groups as the primary database. The files must be the same size or larger than the primary database’s online redo logs.

Note:The standby redo log files will be created automatically when we perform the RMAN Duplicate for Standby for the Standby Database.

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About Natik Ameen

Natik Ameen is an Oracle Production DBA, Oracle Certified RAC Expert and a DBA track Certification trainer for over 17 years. He is an Oracle Evangelist and has presented at IOUG & UTOUG conferences. He writes on topics such as Database Administration, RAC, GoldenGate and the Cloud. Stay connected with Natik at LinkedIn or FaceBook.